Holidays

My son's birthday is in mid-October. From that point on, life seems to speed up, whipping past Halloween and Thanksgiving, and then heading full tilt into Christmas. This fall has been exceptionally busy, with lots of relatives visiting, and other events and parties to put on and attend.

In spite of all the activities and preparations I've been involved in, I've managed to do some painting (never enough time!) and a lot of jewelry. What I love most is working with metals, and my goal is to take another class that will take me to another level. Here are two pairs of earrings I've done recently, with all the silverwork done by hand. I learn a lot each time I sit down to work with the metal, but I'm sure I'm reinventing the wheel many times over, in that, what I learn slowly through trial and error, I could learn very quickly with a good instructor. But, perhaps I learn best that way. Whatever the case, I love to learn! And I love to create!

Too Busy to Blog

It is not that I am procrastinating. Nor have I fallen off the edge of the earth. I just have been terrible busy with custom orders, singlehandedly hosting a birthday party/sleepover for my son and four of his friends, raking leaves, walking, and creating new designs for my etsy shop. Please stay tuned for more blogging....any day now!

Black Flower Earrings -- Oxidized Sterling Silver

I have been itching to try out my Liver of Sulphur ever since it arrived a few weeks ago. Liver of Sulphur, which smells as bad as its name, is used to oxidize silver. To tarnish it, in other words. Why would you want to deliberately tarnish silver, I hear some of you asking. It seems oxidized silver is quite popular these days in the jewelry world and, I have to admit, it has a very interesting effect.

With some 18 gauge sterling silver wire, I hand-formed two flower petal designs. I hammered them for strength, and then soldered into the center of each a flower-shaped bead cap, followed by a flower-shaped bali bead spacer. I like the way these draw the eye into the center of the flower. I pickled them, then tumbled them until hard and polished. I was tempted to leave them that way, all bright and shiny, but decided instead to use my Liver of Sulphur. It takes a little getting used to, as either the solution or the silver has to be hot, but it finally came out to a uniform, dull black. I then took the flowers back to my studio, where I hand-polished them to a rich gleam. I'm very happy with my rare and exotic flower earrings!

Fuschia Flamengo, Ghost Deer, and Other Distractions

I find these days that it is very difficult to stay indoors. The blue sky and changing colors beckon. And yet, when I am outside walking, I find my mind half in my studio, working on a design, or thinking about what I'm going to make next. I enjoy the walk, the feel of the warm sun, the sound of acorns crunching underfoot, the crash and thud of falling black walnuts and apples from the trees above, the sight of a leaf floating gently from the sky like a snowflake presaging a blizzard. And always, always, when I'm walking, I keep my eye out for a white deer which comes to nibble on a neighbor's garden some evenings. I saw this photo, which my neighbor happened to snap, and it took my breath away. The deer doesn't look real. It looks like a photographic negative or, perhaps, a ghost. How does it stay hidden in the forest, I wonder? Do other deer attack it for being different as, I was told, horses often bite others that are white?

I realized today as I was walking and pondering the last thought, that there is a connection there with the necklace I'm making. The connection has nothing to do with the colors in nature, as this necklace has much more in common with a tropical garden than a temperate forest. Rather, the connection is with the girl for whom I am designing the necklace and a white horse.

A number of years ago, when I was living in Peru, I met the girl and became very close to her mother and her family. My son was the same age, and they used to take riding lessons together. One day, the horse her sister was riding reached out to bite the white horse upon which the girl was mounted. Horrifyingly, the horse missed and, instead, bit down on the girl's thigh with such force that it lifted her up out of the saddle. Understandably, the poor girl was very reluctant to get back up on a horse again.

But, I digress: I got distracted. Back to the walk, back to the thoughts of the ghost deer, back to the thoughts of the girl and her necklace. The necklace is called Fuschia Flamengo. It is spectacular, it sparkles, it has a star's big personality....pretty much like the girl herself! Happy Birthday and enjoy your homecoming!

The Dress

Stay tuned for the necklace I am designing to go with this beautiful dress, which will be worn by the lovely daughter of a dear friend, to her first high school Homecoming Dance!

Whiskey on the Rocks Necklace

After fighting off viruses and staunching wounds in the first half of the week, I finally managed to sit down today in my studio (okay, well, stand up, as I have to do most of my hammering on the window sill of the nearby laundry room) and complete a necklace I've been dreaming of since I purchased a strand of gorgeous facetted whiskey quartz beads.

I haven't had much time lately to do a lot of silver work, plus I've been working with a lot more gold due to the autumn colors I've been using, but I really wanted to forge a beautiful sterling chain that would highlight the spectacular beauty of the whiskey quartz pendant. Although it goes beautifully with gold (see my previous blog entitled "Whiskey and Pearls by Firelight"), I thought the purity of silver was needed for this necklace.

Working with silver is a source of great pleasure for me. I love forming links by hand and eyeball, I love soldering, I love hammering (especially hammering!). There is something immensely satisfying in making something as solid as a chain from something as simple as wire.

I wanted the main links of the chain to mimic the shape of the pendant, or perhaps to mimic the shape of ice cubes floating in a crystal glass full of whiskey. I joined the larger links with smaller ones, which I hammered to give a texture distinct from the smoothly hammered larger links, and then twisted slightly for additional visual interest. I finished it off with a handforged s-hook clasp which enables the wearer to extend the necklace from 16-18 inches.

I am thinking of trotting out my Liver of Sulphur (I know: what a name! And an even worse smell!) and making a similar necklace with oxidized silver. I like the idea of dark grey silver next to the warm tawny gold of the whiskey quartz.

Road Rash...and Other Viruses

So, my husband leaves for a trip to Latin America on Sunday afternoon. All is quiet on the home front until I hear the backdoor open and turn to see my son, covered in blood from the knees down. He caught a terrible road rash, it would seem, while playing football....in the street....while wearing shorts. Hmmmm, funny how those viruses can sneak up on you in the midst of playing. So, instead of a nice quiet dinner together, I spent the next hour discovering and bathing and bandaging his wounds. His knees took the brunt of it, but his elbow was nicely skinned as well. He was being very brave about it, while I was trying hard not to hyperventilate at all the blood and missing skin.

So, Monday morning, which is typically a difficult morning with the three of us sleepily bumping into each other and tripping on cats, was made even more interesting by the subtraction of one adult to deal with breakfast, etc, and with the additional need to remove sterile pads (ouch! Don't do it so fast, Mom!) slooooooowly, cleanse wounds, reassure child that the antiseptic states in clear red letters on the bottle that it is a "no-sting" formula while he is whimpering in pain, replace sterile pads, try to find an area where there is actual skin onto which I can put tape, then wrapping it all in Ace bandages to prevent the sterile pads from falling off during the day at school.

He made it through the day with Ace bandages intact, but arrived home with another virus: a cold. Tuesday morning, the ritual was repeated, sans help from far-away hubby, and, looking from the pulpy knees to the dripping nose, I decided to keep him home. Wednesday morning, his knees had swelled up like balloons, but I said he should go to school anyway (after all, high school counts, I told him). He slowly limped toward the door, saying it hurt to put weight on one leg, came back to blow his nose, looking so miserable that I relented and kept him home again. Took him to the doctor as well, as my husband and I didn't believe him when he came in that same back door, almost a year ago now, and said he thought he broke his leg....playing football....in the dark....on Friday the 13th....which happened to be his 13th birthday. Lucky for us that, this time, the doctor thought the swelling was just due to the extensive bruising and subsequent swelling, exacerbated, perhaps, by the cold virus which causes joints to ache.

Long story short: I've been working on a necklace I love, featuring a handforged sterling silver chain and another one of those gorgeous facetted whiskey quartz nuggets, but... well, viruses have intervened and I haven't had a chance to finish it. Maybe I should develop a taste for whiskey after all: I heard it has marvelous antiseptic properties!